April 16, 2010

Last month I noted an Investigative Project article noting that Ohio Homeland Security had published materials that Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, characterized as "classic Islamist propaganda". These items were written by the homeland security office's multicultural affairs director, Omar Alomari.

Now an insider has contacted us informing us that Ohio Homeland Security had to destroy thousands of the brochures mentioned in the previous article for promoting terror-linked groups and that they are trying to promote Alomari as a "de-radicalization" expert. Can it be really just coincidence that the government continually picks the radicalized foxes to guard the de-radicalization hen-house?

The brochure in question published by Ohio Homeland Security is entitled "Agents of Radicalization". The Investigative Project described it contents:

Alomari also authored a two-page brochure called "Agents of Radicalization" for the Ohio Department of Homeland Security. In it, he lists several grievances driving terrorism in the Muslim world, including Israel's occupation and oppression of the Palestinians, U.S. support for Israel, the U.S. invasion and occupation of Muslim lands and support for repressive regimes. [i.e. it has nothing about Islamic ideology - B] Alomari goes on to explain that such terrorism also stems from the expected societal reaction of the once proud and thriving Arab/Muslim culture, now in decline and conflict because of the stronger and aggressive West.

Jasser describes the two publications as "full of factual inaccuracies" including the assertion that 66 percent of American Arabs are Muslim (close to three-fourths are Christian). Alomari also "misses the core problem: political Islam." Instead, he indulges in "bizarre revisionist history" which "seeks to portray Muslims as victims."

The United States is engaged in "a war of ideas" with radical Islam. Regarding jihadists, "you would hope that [Alomari] would say that these are corrupt thugs who have hijacked our faith," Jasser told the Investigative Project on Terrorism. But instead he "describes [terrorism] as a response to what the West has done."

The material Alomari's agency is putting out is "classic Islamist propaganda" which suggests that "these thugs who kill people in restaurants and shopping malls will stop if we solve the Arab-Israeli conflict," Jasser said. "In fact, they'll find another grievance in a year or two."

The article goes on to state that the brochure lists seven different Islamic organizations, many of which were listed by the Department of Justice as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation trial.

We recently received an email from a State of Ohio employee who recounts what happened to Alomari's radicalization brochure (apologies for just now getting around to it):

I work with Omar Alomari and I can tell you what actually happened with that brochure. Thousands of copies were printed up by the department (at taxpayer expense, of course). Some copies had been provided to some of our partner agencies. As boxes of these things were getting ready to be shipped out, our director was contacted by some counter-terrorism officials and told that the brochure was promoting groups that the FBI and other agencies were trying to distance themselves from (like CAIR). The director was told that Department of Justice had linked several of these groups to terrorist organizations (CAIR, ISNA, MAS, etc).

The end result is that the radicalization brochure never saw the light of day. All of the copies that were about to be sent out had to be destroyed and employees were sent that day to the other agencies to collect the handful that had already been distributed. We don't even have the pdf posted on our website anymore. I know a few hard copies still exist that people inside and outside our office have held onto because of the fiasco. I can try to get you one if you need proof. I'm not sure how much the state paid to print these up only to have to destroy them before they ever went out, but I'm sure someone could file a public records request to find out. It was around March or April 2008 as I recall. [Anyone want to submit that request? Contact us! - B]

It is common knowledge in our office that Omar is definitely not on our team. He hangs out with these same terror-linked groups and even brings them into meetings he arranges to give them legitimacy. But now our agency and especially our director Bill Vedra is pushing Omar out as some kind of national de-radicalization expert. It is no secret to anyone who knows him that Omar Alomari IS a radical, but he is great at playing the "moderate" when he needs to be.

In hindsight, I'm glad the brochure didn't go out, because it was clearly "Islamist propaganda" as described in your article. But we all know Omar is untouchable because of his connection to our local Islamofascists who will lay siege to our office and brand anyone a bigot that dares say a word against him. He is the one who keeps the bad guys aware of what goes on in our office. CAIR is the one who got him this job in the first place!!! Because he is basically the information pipeline to the wrong people it is virtually impossible to do our job to protect the public as long as Omar is in our office. And our agency's leadership -- especially Bill Vedra -- being a bunch of cowards makes it even worse.

I'm contacting you through my personal email for obvious reasons and I have to ask that you keep my identity strictly confidential. Any criticism of Omar and his friends is strictly forbidden and I would get fired for even breathing a word about this. But to confirm my identity, feel free to call me at the office - 614-XXX-XXXX [edited, duh - B].

I did contact the correspondent and confirmed that they did in fact work at the Ohio Department of Public Safety. They definitely hold a position where they would know about these matters. Our thanks for their willingness to take a risk to inform the public. I'll post more information if and when I get it.